I focus almost exclusively on PvP, whether solo, small gang, or large bloc warfare. In the past, I've been a miner, mission runner, and faction warfare jockey. I'm particularly interested in helping high-sec players get into 0.0 combat.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Null-Sec 101: Surviving Bubbles

Null-sec 101 is a series of articles meant to teach new players about
null-sec, with a focus on PvP and daily life.

The most basic – and often most
ignored – aspect of survival in null-sec is being able to successfully navigate
it.Most people who spent their entire
Eve lives in high-sec, or even low-sec, may think it’s simply a matter of
traveling from gate to gate in a fast frigate, running from anything that they
can’t handle.But bubbles change the
dynamic in null-sec.

There are two things you need to
know about them.First, if you’re inside
one, you can’t warp until you escape its range.If someone puts a bubble up around a gate as you jump in, you either
need to burn back to the gate and jump through again, or burn out of the bubble
before warping.

Second, if they are positioned
close to and in line with your destination, they can drag you off-course when
you exit warp.What do I mean?Let’s say you’re warping from Gate A to Gate
B.Evil Pirate has put a bubble 100km away
from Gate B in the direction of Gate A.If you warp to Gate B at 0 from Gate A, you’ll actually stop right
inside the bubble – 100km away from the safety of the other side of the gate
(called a stop bubble).The same
mechanic works if you position the bubble in line with Gate A, but on the other
side of Gate B (drag bubble).

Expect your enemy to use
bubbles.Most fleets have at least one interdictor,
and often many mobile bubbles in the cargo holds of otherwise innocent-looking DPS
ships.In many cases, they’ll even drop
cargo containers near the front of the bubble to decloak any ships caught.Covops cloaks won’t save you.

So, how do you avoid them?How do you survive solo travel in null-sec?

First, you need to choose the
right ship.Any gate can have a gate
camp with a bubbler on the other side.In these cases, your ship has to be able to survive the 11km or so
you’ll have to travel to burn back to the gate and jump through. Most gate camp fleets have a couple dedicated
tacklers.At least one or two of them will
point you on the bubbled side, and won’t be able to jump through with you when
you reach the gate again.You’ll likely be
followed through by the remainder – usually one or two additional tacklers. If
your ship is fit in such a way that you can kill this tackler, you can survive.

But the best way to survive
bubbles is to avoid them altogether.For
that, you need to be smart.When you
travel, if you see any neutrals/reds in system, do not warp directly from gate to gate.During your first trip through a system,
you’ll have no choice but to warp to a celestial first – a planet, a moon, an
asteroid belt, a cosmic signature, even the sun if you have no other choice
(the sun is a common warp-to, so many PvPers will default to looking for a ship
at the sun).When you warp to these,
don’t warp at 0 or 100 km… warp at some range in between.When you’re in warp, make a safe bookmark in
the middle of nowhere (open People and Places, click on “Add Bookmark”).

That brings me to the next point…
bookmarks are your friend.Any time I
deploy anywhere in New Eden, the purpose of my first solo roam is to make scout points off all the gates I
may be traveling through.I never warp
directly to a gate, I always warp to my bookmarks.During my first trip, I’ll warp to every gate
at 100, then burn off in a random direction – in line with no celestials –
until I’m about 250-300 off the gate, and bookmark that scout spot.That way, I can warp to it at 100km from any
direction and still be at a distance to warp to the gate.These scout points let me land on grid, but
safely away from any gate camps or bubbles.

I cannot stress scout bookmarks
enough.Just yesterday, I was roaming
through a null-sec wormhole to drone space in my armor-fit Stabber Fleet Issue
(double web, point).In system were 5
neuts.Luckily, I had been there before,
and had a scout point off my out-gate.I
warped to the bookmark and avoided four Daredevils.I probably could have taken at least one or
two with my 220mm ACs and double webs, but I didn’t know what else was on the
other side of the gate (the hostiles lived in that space), so I avoided the
engagement.I wouldn’t have had the
option if I’d have warped right to the gate.

Bouncing off celestials and
using bookmarks can avoid most bubbles, but not all of them.Some constellation and regional gates are far
out of line with the rest of the solar system, and can’t be “warped
around”.In these cases, there’s one
last option: burning capacitor.

This trick is easy.When you engage your warp drive, your
capacitor immediately drops by the amount needed to complete the warp – even if
you have to accelerate before warping.If you then cancel your warp before entering warp, that cap energy is still
gone.By warping and stopping multiple
times, you can bleed out your capacitor until you no longer have enough to warp
all the way to the distant gate.On this
last warp, let it kick you into warp, then hit stop (Ctrl + space).Your warp won’t get you all the way there,
but with some practice, you can get within dscan range (14 AU) so you can see
what’s on the gate.

I have one overview tab I use
exclusively for scanner probes and warp bubbles.I normally scna for ships first, then switch
to my bubble/probe overview and scan for those.If it’s clear, I’ll finish my warp and jump through.Many times, I’ve used this cap-burning trick
to get within range to scan and detect a bubbled gate camp, and avoid it.

If you see a neutral in system,
always assume he’s in a Sabre, or is sitting on a bubble in-line with both your
gate and the nearest planet.No neutral
is safe.If you get used to these
tricks, you can successfully navigate past any bubbles without being the next
fish caught in the net.

It seems cumbersome and slow at
first, but remember: this is not high-sec.CONCORD will not save you, and there are no gate guns.You’re on your own here.Fly like it.

This is good but the hard spot is actually when you jump through a gate and the other side is bubbled. You can burn back to the gate, but they often have another bubble ready to jump through with you, then you're in the same position on the other side. What then?

If you're flying something that can make it to the gate before you take too much damage, keep burning and jumping. You may get lucky with bubble placement, and be outside the bubble after a jump (this is much easier on a regional gate, which has a larger radius). Keep a cool head, and use your judgment about when you try to break out. Try to get the rest of the enemy aggressed on one side, then fight your way out when the odds are best in your favor.

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